Have We Made Progress?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

Have We Made Progress?

When Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

Sirf Oliver L©dge Slums Up

T AM to comment on an address recently given by Sir Hugh Allen to the 1 Royal College of Music at Kensington. I can only judge of the address from reports in the Press; but certainly some of Sir Hugh’s utterances are worthy of the Director of the Royal College of Music. For instance the following:—

“No mechanical means can take the place of that grinding and discipline which the individual must submit to and become master of. Many things have been invented which save us time and labour in a general way, but there has been found nothing to take the place of our own efforts in making us masters of ourselves and our jobs. “Human beings have got to live up to the new world, take command of it, and not let it take command of them, or they will go under.” These statements are undoubtedly true. There has never been any short cut to knowledge; nor can executive skill bo attained in any art except through severe training, labour and discipline. The skill which is attained in the control of the muscles of the human body, as displayed by laboratory experimenters, athletes, artists, and executive musicians, is amazing. The human body under control is a wonderful machine. And tho rapidity, accuracy and precision of a performer on the violin or the piano are a brilliant example of what can be attained by continuous effort and practice on the part of an individual who has the innate gift. When we consider the anatomy of the limbs and the way in which the fingers are actuated by the muscles and stimulated by the nerves, it is extraordinary that any kind of mechanism can produce such admirable results. By this moans, and by sympathetic interpretation, the mind of & composer can be revealed to generations long after his death. Even in Games. And even in games, w’hcn no important result is aimed at, tho precision with which, say, a golf ball cau be hit with a club needs a co-ordination between eye and hand, and indeed the whole of the body muscles, an accuracy of timing and graduated energy, which no one without experience could have thought possible. No artificial mechanism, however well designed, can do more than supplement and stereotype the action in some one limited direction of the various accomplishments of the human body. We live in an age of mechanism, and especially of locomotive devices, whereby human powers are greatly enlarged, so that the energy latent in nature can be utilised and directed in a way which was impossible to our forefathers, and so that the forces of nature are coming more and more under control. We now use not only matter, in the form of tools and machines, we harness atomic and molecular forces, and we have begun to use even the ether of space, in the form of electricity and magnetism. The discovery and utilisation of electricity were the work of the nineteenth century, and may be regarded as the salient outcome of that astonishing period. The result is that we travel more easily, swiftly, and comfortably than ever before, can communicate by cable with the distant parts of the earth, and indeed can shout our messages all over the civilised globe. The Warning. Surely these increased powers are, or ought to bo, advantageous. But naturally the advantage must depend on what use we make of them. It is, and always has been, our business to control the forces of nature and bring them into the service of man; but it is still more our business to control ourselves, and to determine our own actions for wise and wellconsidered ends —in fact, to determine not only our individual but our national actions also. Whether for an individual or for a nation, and, indeed, for humanity generally, no control over external nature can supersede or dispense with self-control. Sir Hugh Allen’s warning is directed to the danger lest, by depending on and constantly attending to material advances, we cease to pay adequate attention to human development. And he truly says, virtually, that

no mere accumulation and utilisation of inventions will promote human happiness if the weightier matters of the law are neglected. The facility of widespread communication is useless if we have nothing that is worth while to say; the facility of locomotion adds nothing to human intelligence if it is a mere scampering over the ground. The progress of tho arts and sciences depends in the last resort on the cultivation of the powers latent in humanity, and not in the multiplication of machines. The old virtues remain as important as ever, and unless they continue to be cultivated civilisation will fall into ruin. Appalling Possibilities. The late war gave us a warning. It showed that the ability to construct ingenious devices had overrun tho desire to uso them for good and helpful ends. In tho pursuit of national aggrandizement on the part of a hostile power instruments of destruction wore loosed upon the world to an extent which in the old international conflicts had boon impossible. It was made quite clear that, given a little more time, the misdirected ingenuity of humanity could bring about its own wholesale destruction. No wonder, therefore, that those who cultivate tho arts and sciences, and the peaceful pursuits which have come down to us from time immemorial, were appalled at the possibilities ahead. But, fortunately, we have had the warning; and many there are now who perceive, more clearly than before, that real human prosperity cannot be accomplished by a mere extension of material facilities. Tho will to uso them properly should be dominant, and in the absence of goodwill among tho peoples they are merely an added danger. Apart also from national and international considerations there is a danger to the individual likewise if personal development is lost sight of in the rush and excitement of modern mechanical progress. Meanwhile, however, let us take heart and remember that a multitude of quiet workers and peace-loving people are continuing the old pursuits with as much energy as ever. Whether artists and men of letters are still at the zenith of their powers, it is for others to say. But I know that in pure science discoveries arc quietly proceeding, of a recondite and mysterious order, which some day will come to fruition; and that they are already suggesting an access of knowledge far beyond anything suspected in the nineteenth century. Whether this deeper understanding of the realities of existence will have a beneficent effect on humanity or not depends on whether humanity is worthy of the opportunity that will be afforded it. I doubt not that it will. For already let us see how much improvement there has been in simple and easily intelligible directions. Surely the lot of the manual worker has vastly improved, even during the last fifty years. There is a growing better feeling between employer and employed, and a far greater feeling of responsibility for the welfare of those whose labours conduce to tho well-being of the world. Strength and brutality arc no longer dominant. The weak are helped, even to what some think an unhealthy extent. Good feeling and self-sacrifice are prominent among all the inhabitants of this country.

The emancipation of women is a reality. They have won respect, and are aided by all classes of the community. In what previous age could a girl travel unprotected and yet in perfect safety, in some baby motor, from one end of England to the other? In the old days of locomotion firearms had to be carried, highwaymen were likely to be encountered; the countryside was not free and smiling and safe as it is now.

Fifty years ago the nature of disease was not understood. Surgery was carried on under conditions which now would seem abominable. Pasteur and Lister have worked in our own time. And this is only one example of a multitude of improvements that might be cited, all conducing to progress, owing partly to increase of knowledge and partly to the intense desire to use it for good and human ends. Certainly we have progressed.